Princess and Pauper
by Secret-Universe
Summary: Rouge, a princess seeking a life of excitement and adventure, with someone she can truly love. Shadow, a poor pauper hedgehog looking toward a world of life better then what he has. shadouge, knuxjulie, sonamy
1. Their Lives

_Darkness, sort of a purple shade of dark to be precise… trees lost their leaves due to a strange yet gentle breeze… butterflies almost transparent landed on soft white flowerbeds… a figure stood in the middle of it all, surrounded by a silver glow, cause of her snow-white fur, eyes like the bright ocean view and wings that copied the black of the evening… she only had on a long white dress that seemed fit more for a summer wedding day…_

"_Oh, he'll come around again…" she spoke, mainly to herself then to whoever else, maybe besides the butterflies, "Like in every night I have, he'll come back…"_

"_You called for me… Princess Rouge?"_

_The young bat yelped as she turned to another kind of brighter silver glow as it revealed a figure, you couldn't completely see him but she could tell from his spiky hair, he seemed like a hedgehog. His dark blue cape draped all around him, flowing along with the wind just like it was water._

"_This may be the final time that I'll ever see you again, my princess…" the figure spoke, his voice echoing throughout the landscape._

"_Well, that is, until I find the real you, my prince." Rouge sighed, "It's too bad that you can't even give me a small clue as in to who you are?"_

"_I'm afraid it is quite impossible, princess… for there are things I cannot reveal yet…" the stranger floated over to her, as she closed her eyes with a small smile._

"_I await my kiss, my prince…"_

_His hand lingered on her shoulder, "Rouge…"_

"_I really do so await…"_

"_Rouge…"_

"_All I need right now is a…" Suddenly, without warning, she received a smack to the face as she yelled out in pain and looked dumbfounded at the frowning unknown figure, "Ow! Hey, that's not very romantic, prince!"_

_Then he spoke again, this time… in a woman's voice?_

"I told you before, I'm not any prince!"

Rouge then awoke into her reality world, which in case you haven't figured by now, she had only been dreaming, and she was indeed a princess, living inside a huge marble palace, but lately… she had disliked her life of royalty just a bit… too much work, too much rules, and just… not enough freedom that she really needed.

"…And it's about time you got up!"

The same voice caused Rouge to focus on the frowning teenage girl next to her bed, same age close to hers. Seeing the frowning pink echidna with eyes of violet flowers and standing behind her, a cotton-candy colored hedgehog, eyes of emeralds, the bat frowned nervously. She had a bad habit of sleeping in.

"My apologies, Julie-Su," Rouge said this to the female echidna, "I was just… having that dream again."

Julie-Su wasn't surprised by this, "What is it with you and these dreams? It's not like you have to go out on the street and dress as a poor princess every day, but no!" She then mimicked the bat's sayings, much to Rouge's secret annoyance, "_I want a real life! I want a real life!_" Then in her normal voice, Julie-Su added in with her own despair, "Well, _**I've **_wanted to be Head Captain of your dad's Guard Army! I just don't see it happening!" She crossed her arms for a brief proud moment, "Though I would make a pretty good one. Wouldn't you say so, Rose?"

The hedgehog, Amy Rose, yawned before she began to reply, "It's a bit early in the morning to be discussing complements, but…" She then smiled, "You? As Head Captain?" She giggled at the silly thought, "I'd love to see that happen."

Julie-Su frowned, shaking her fist feeling offended, "Oh, it's going to happen, Pinky. Just you wait!"

Then, the door opened to reveal a butler, his species being a green Tree Frog. He looked with slight shock of Rouge, "Your Highness, how can you still be lingering in bed? You know full well that your Father expects you to be up earlier then this." He then left.

Rouge got up, murmuring in mock of the frog, "And he should know full well that coming into my teenage years, I'm not really that slow." Julie-Su and Amy kind of giggled at this. Rouge then opened the door to her enormous wardrobe, "What to where?" it wasn't so hard choosing since all the gowns, dresses and costumes she had where arranged all by colors.

Amy pointed to the pink dresses, "Ooh, those are nice."

Rouge however just frowned as she headed for the section of black/white/grey outfits, searching through them, "Let's see… black and white, black and white, black and white… Oh!" She pulled out her favorite outfit, "White and black. Shake it up a little, shall we?"

"Tell me, how does she tell the difference again?" Julie asked, the question always in her head when Rouge went through her dresses.

"Well, she is a bat, isn't she?" Amy returned her friend's question with her own question.

"Never mind."

* * *

><p>Later, as the three girls headed down the stairs, they spotted the king himself, Rouge's father, King Gray, due to his dull grey almost-lifeless fur, pale blue eyes and a little chubby. His long baby-blue cape dragged a little behind him, as he frowned, but that was because of the Rouge came downstairs, or rather…<p>

"Rouge, please. You know I asked you time and time before, no flying inside the palace." His voice was rather soft, but Rouge knew he meant serious and landed sheepishly.

"Sorry, Daddy." Rouge then walked over to give her father a kiss on the cheek, as he embraced her in return. The two had lived together for a long time in the palace together, along with Rouge's friends. But about her mother… no one really knows about the story.

Julie-Su then noticed something on the bat's outfit, "Rouge, you got to stop getting lint on these uniforms." She went to pick at it but that made Rouge jump.

"Julie, that was me!"

"Whoops."

"Remember, girls. You have to check on the market place later today." Grey reminded the girls of their daily job.

"Sir, yes sir." The echidna and hedgehog saluted playfully as Rouge simply nodded.

"Good, now see what the chef has left for you this morning." He turned to return to his throne.

"I bet it's Pancake morning." Julie-Su went ahead, smirking.

"No, they promised it would be waffles!" Amy giggled, running after her friend.

Rouge shrugged as she followed them, again flying after them, "I'm pretty sure it's French toast."

"Rouge, no flying in the palace!"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, out on the streets of the market place, beyond the palace grounds, people bustled about, selling, buying, so on… even stealing seemed to be included. Don't believe me? Look at these guys for example.<p>

Two men lying on top of a cart, which sold watermelons. The first was a blue hedgehog, green eyes and he had a cocky grin as he gestured to his buddy, a crimson echidna with dark purple eyes and a white moon mark on his chest. He seemed to be tying a rope around his ankle for something and then tied it to the post where he might hang.

"Ready, Knuckles? You know what to do." The cobalt hedgehog, Sonic, gave a thumbs up.

Knuckles saluted back, "Roger." He then dived over; watching as a rather large pig held a melon and smiled, trying to sell his best fruit.

"Try these and your taste buds will dance and sing." The pig didn't even notice Knuckles as the echidna grabbed a melon from behind and dangled there, smirking, "Hey, porky!"

"What-?" The pig then frowned, seeing the echidna with the melon, "Get your hands off that!"

Knuckles decided to have a little fun mocking the pig, "Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!"

"Why you little-!" As the pig yanked back the melon, Sonic had grabbed the one that had been held earlier. The pig became confused as Knuckles grinned, "Like I've been saying, that's all folks!" He then pulled himself back up.

Sonic laughed, "Now that was smooth, Knuckles!" The two gave a high five as the melon was split into three, one probably being saved for a friend of theirs. "Breakfast has been served."

"Boys." They looked up upon a black hedgehog with red markings in his quills, red eyes, and a frown that plastered onto his face, "You do this every time?"

"Only if something good was going on, Shadow." Sonic then threw up for him the slice of melon, "Bon appetite!"

The black hedgehog grabbed it but sighed, "I mean, you guys aren't getting sick of this? Living out on the street while other people get a rather good life of their own."

The blue boy chewed out a piece of his treat as he became confused, "Why that? We got all the good stuff out here, if we needed to."

"I don't think so…" Shadow frowned, taking a small bit of his fresh melon slice.

Knuckles swallowed, "He's pouting again, isn't he?"

"My guess, almost every 24-7." Sonic replied back.

"I'm right here you know." Shadow frowned with a roll of his eyes as his friends played innocent looks.

"We didn't say anything." Sonic protested.

"Yeah," the echidna agreed.

As Shadow finished up his melon slice, he stood up, "Got to go now, Dad is probably steaming up again of my certain absence."

"Do what you gotta do." Sonic waved as they watched Shadow leave for his own home.

"… well, it's not like things could get any worse." Knuckles shrugged, speaking to no one in peculiar."

"How?"

"How what?" He repeated his blue friend.

"How can things get any more worse?"

The echidna just frowned, "They couldn't. I was lying."

* * *

><p>"Dad?" Shadow called as he entered a small almost broken-down shelter, half nervous but he had no idea why he should be. Maybe because he knew his father always had a short temper or… something else. He entered further inside, "<em>No sign of him yet. Maybe still asleep. And<em>…"

"Where have you been?"

Shadow yelped, stumbling backwards, gripping onto the wall for support. He then spotted a much older hedgehog that was black like him only no markings on his body, his eyes seemed to glow a bright Toxic green color. His face was blacked by darkness once or twice, seeming to hide something, mainly the right side of his face…

"Well?"

"S-Sorry, Dad…" Shadow scrambled back up, facing the frowning parent, "But you know, I always hang with my friend for…"

"For all that stealing? You were taught better then that." He turned away, "If it weren't for your old man, James the Hedgehog, we would've been in a deeper problem then this."

"Dad, we're poor anyway." Shadow then placed down a large brown bag he had been carrying the whole time with him, "But I manage to make little money for us, getting us enough of what we need." He frowned in concern, "However, you seem to be focused mostly on these…" He paused, what was the right word? "… Experiments."

"Son, these experiments can help us someday, get us both a better life." James shook a little with anger, still hiding his face half in the shadows, "Isn't that what you want in life?"

"Well, at least a life where we don't have to keep wasting what precious gold we have left." Irony was, they hardly ever got money, "Why in the world would you be doing this inventing in the first place?" That suddenly came as a regretted question.

"_**BECAUSE OF **__**THIS!**_" James screamed loudly, causing Shadow to shrink back, covering his eyes. He remembered his father's wound and had to try and avoid talking about such a thing. He didn't want to look again, not in this case…

"Son…" James spoke in an odd calm voice once again, "Please at least look…"

Shadow shivered, "_I might as well…_" He looked slowly as James had been hiding part of his face in the dark and stepped into the light… his right side of the face finally revealed… a badly burnt scar that dug itself literally into his face. The young hedgehog gagged a little upon seeing his father's scar once again and slowly turned away. It frightened him too much to talk again… James' hand touched Shadow's shoulder almost in comfort.

"You see what I mean, my boy? This was the reason we've lost everything… including…" He whispered the next part into the shaking hedgehog's ear, "Your mother…"

Shadow's eyes went wide, "Mom…" He began to shake again, "It was that fire that… cause everything we had, wasn't it?"

"I'm afraid so…" James hugged his son to cease the shaking, which seemed to finally slow down, "_I'm afraid so… Alice was a beautiful woman, a wonderful wife and a loving mother to you, my son… she just was…_"

Shadow just silently clutched close to his father. His life had been bad enough… would there be anything to change it? He doubted anyone felt the same way…

But it would be proven he was wrong…

Even for someone inside a certain palace…


	2. Meeting In the Market Place

Later on, that same afternoon, as the crowds bustled here and there about their business, a carriage passed through as people parted for Rouge and her friends, with Amy next to her and Julie-Su steering the palace mustang, which they oddly named Tony, a black horse.

Rouge was a little bored as she looked out the small window, "No fusses here today."

"Maybe there will be, if we look hard enough." Amy tried to add in.

Julie-Su looked in the back, "Even if we did, how would we find it?"

"See?' Amy giggled.

The echidna female rolled her eyes, "Very funny."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in another part of the market place, Shadow and his friends were trying to make another one of their get-rich-quick schemes, though it already seemed to be failing. In fact, it always seemed to fail… but they got kind of a lucky day, as after people left, Knuckles and Sonic hurried to where Shadow had been standing the whole time to count the coins they collected.<p>

"Is it enough?" Sonic wondered.

Shadow began counting the pieces, "Possibly enough to help me and Dad."

"What about us?" Knuckles protested, "We worked hard too."

"I'll see what I can do about once Dad sees this money."

Just then, a small mole hurried by but stopped long enough to call to the trio of boys, "What are you standing around for? The princess, she coming this way!" He hurried off again.

"Princess?" The boys then remembered what the mole meant by that.

"She might take us for thieves or something." Shadow didn't like the thought already, he and his friends in prison due to big misunderstandings.

"Come on," Sonic led the way but as they did so, the bag dropped.

Shadow stopped for it, "_Oh damn it!_" He went back to gather up the coins with his friends' help… until a red shoe stepped on them. The hedgehogs and echidna paused before glancing slowly at the person they hated to meet at this time, he was a hawk named Jet. He was rather a bully to the three then anyone else in the city.

"I see you're cleaning up _my _payment." He laughed.

Shadow frowned at the bird, still clutching the coins in his hand, "You don't deserve any of this, Jet. We earned these ourselves!"

"But wasn't there a deal we all made?" Jet let Shadow get the rest of the money as Sonic and Knuckles walked up, frowning still, "You'd pay me half of whatever money you buy off."

Sonic didn't look amused, "Was that a reference to stealing, us? That's no good."

"Enough with the cocky jokes already." Shadow warned.

"So, how much do I get this evening?" Jet smirked, waiting, "If it's late tonight and any of it gets spent, then…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know the whole deal." Shadow however didn't want to give up half the money so easily. He and his friends worked hard for this, and his dad might need the money.

Knuckles briefly drew up a single coin from his glove, "Do you even realize how much just one coin costs?"

"A whole dollar, is that a problem?" Jet sneered.

He pretended to drop it, "Ah, butterfingers on that one…" With a quick bent over, Jet's face reddened, but in anger.

"Okay, that's just sick." Sonic admitted.

"God, I have weird friends," Shadow murmured half to himself.

The hawk became a little pissed, "Oh you did not just moon me, red mutt!"

"No, if I was mooning, I'd be doing this!" As he repeated the action, Shadow and Sonic grimaced. They were in deep trouble now.

"Knuckles, stop it!" the black hedgehog snapped.

"Hey, he asked for it, he always does!" Knuckles defended himself.

Jet cracked his fists, "Well then, I assume you three each asked for a knuckle-sandwich!"

"Wait, Knuckles is an echidna, not a sandwich." Sonic was a little confused of the insult.

"Oh for crying out loud…" Shadow then shouted as in distraction, "Duck, look out!" As soon as the hawk turned his back, the three friends ducked out of sight.

"Duck?" Jet looked puzzled, "I don't see any duck…" Then it took him no time to realize who the 'duck' was, "Hey!" He then gave chase, "Why you little-!"

Shadow, pushing Sonic who wanted to fight, and Knuckles ran as the blue hedgehog and black hedgehog argued a little.

"Sonic, move!"

"I can take him out!"

"Jet is not-!"

"Lemme at him!"

"Not worth it! No, he's not worth it!"

That's when the peeved-off hawk landed in front of them, laughing, "I got you boys now and the first goes to Red Mutt!" He pulled back a fist.

"I told you before, I'm an…" sadly, Knuckles didn't get to finish as Jet's fist connected with his face, sending him high up, "Hey I can fly!" Then he paled, "Wait a second, that's gliding." He then fell back down again on top of Shadow and Sonic as Jet was laughing hard, but still angry.

* * *

><p>As Julie-Su stirred the carriage down the main street, Rouge and Amy looked out the windows for anything going on. Rouge sighed, nothing ever went on around dusk, and maybe they should just head home and…<p>

"What about them?" Amy pointed at a small crowd.

"Who?" Julie-Su then spotted where the pink hedgehog was pointing, it was Shadow holding back Sonic and Jet fumbling with Knuckles.

"Give me the money!" Jet was squawking. He still wanted half of what the others truly earned.

"You don't earn anything!" Knuckles then found his face to the ground as Jet held him from behind.

Julie-Su, Rouge and Amy watched, until enough was enough. Stealing was one thing in their city but being beat to take what others really needed? Sure enough, Julie-Su pulled over Tony to a stop as she leapt down from the driver's seat, seeming to rush over to help out.

"Julie, wait!" Rouge called. Was her friend being crazy again?

"Let go, let me at him!" Sonic was arguing, squirming.

"Faker, quit it!" Shadow held him back tightly.

"Well, come on!" Jet finally let go of the red echidna.

Knuckles held his arm, "I really needed that limb."

"What, you gonna…?" Jet suddenly got grabbed from behind and pulled extremely close face to face with a very ticked-off Julie-Su.

"Hey, buddy! Weren't you taught to respect your neighbors?" She asked, more like demanded.

The green bird yelped in alarm, "Okay, okay, okay!" He cringed as she tightened her grip on his arms, "_Ow, you're bending them_."

She turned her attention to the three boys, with Knuckles still rubbing his arms, "Now is there a problem here, gentlemen?"

Shadow was the first to speak up, "This parrot thinks we owe him money."

"I'm a hawk!"

"That didn't hurt that bad, did it?" Sonic asked his red-haired friend.

"Oh, you wanted to take the place?" Knuckles looked insulted.

Julie-Su turned her attention back to Jet, "Whatever you took from them, you must give back and that includes money."

"Hey, no way! These jerk-offs already-Ow!" Jet yelped, feeling his limbs get squished.

"That was an order, sir! **Now hand over the money!**"

As Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles were watching, stunned by how Jet was getting ordered around by a stranger, being a woman, they took small notice as Rouge and Amy slowly came out to see the commotion. Shadow seemed to be the first… to drift off into a dream-like gaze upon Rouge, such lovely snow-white fur and bright teal eyes and she looked at him with a strange look, maybe of… new romance? Sonic's attention appeared to be on Amy, as her glittering candy hair bounced in the small breeze as she seemed to glance towards him with a soft smile… it matched her perfectly… Knuckles didn't seem to pay attention at first but after taking a second look at Julie-Su, he also caught on to a dreamy look of hopeless romance but kept it half hidden… she looked so tough, so energetic and so… beautiful in a way… they became a little distracted as the hawk paid up and left bitterly and Rouge walked up, as Julie-Su went for the carriage to take charge of driving Tony.

"…You boys okay by any chance?" Rouge snapped her fingers once or twice just as the three snapped out of it, all stuttering at once.

"Yeah, we-!"

"It's no problem!"

"It's cool!"

Rouge stared at them before she giggled, "Alright, well don't stay out too late, boys." As she turned to get back in the coach, the three boys went into daydream gazes again as the carriage left, leaving them to stand there…

Shadow then slowly started to snap out of it, as he noticed the setting sun, "Oh great, I got to get back to Dad before he gets pissed again! At least I got the money as well. Guys, could you…?" He then noticed his friends still in love-gazes after the departing carriage, Sonic grinning silly and Knuckles drooled a bit.

"Boys, are you going to-?"

"Did you see the way she grabbed him like that?" Knuckles sighed dreamingly, "…she's got amazing strength…"

"And that cute hedgehog girl…" Sonic added, love-struck glued on his face, "Just like a fresh slice of Cherry Cake…" He saw them looking at him weird, "Yes, I'm strange that way okay?"

"Look, guys. Case you two didn't notice, that's royalty we're talking about here!" Shadow snapped. Sighing, he turned to leave…

"But you did it too just now."

"What?" He acted like he didn't know what they meant.

"Yeah, just when Princess Rouge came out, you completely just dug into the romance." Sonic smirked, with arms crossed. He and Knuckles laughed at this.

Shadow's face became all red, "N-no, I was… I mean, she was… sh-she just… oh shut up!"

His friends just kept laughing.

"I mean it! Stop it or I'll blast you both!"

This got them to finally shut up.


	3. Dance Bar

Dark and being late at night, three figures are making their way through the streets in the market. The first being a bat, the second a hedgehog and the third an echidna… Rouge, Amy and Julie-Su but all three of them dressed in brown rags. As you can see, Rouge and her friends did enjoy a bit of the palace life but they also went out in secrecy to enjoy a bit of the life on the streets and their first stop was at a local dance bar.

"Is this really such a good idea?" Amy asked, nervously.

Rouge pulled up her brown handkerchief for her head, "I'm sure, as long as no one knows who we are, alright? Come on." She led the way inside as her friends followed her. Meanwhile on the other side of the bar where the exit was, some other three figures came out of the darkness. This time, it was Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles, but… they seemed to be dressed in fancy tuxedoes. Shadow had only a black jacket with black sunglasses as Sonic had an orange tux with a top hat and so did Knuckles but his was blue instead of orange and the two both had walking canes.

"Boys, as long as you remember the plan, we got to do it this way." Shadow winked to them.

"Man, this suit is uncomfortable." Sonic scratched a bit at his.

"Get used to it; you'll be wearing it the whole night." Knuckles only got a cane poke as a response. Shadow, rolling his eyes, led the way inside as his two companions kept poking each other with canes.

* * *

><p>"Orders' up, ladies!" A bar tender, looking like a grizzly, sent out three milkshakes of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. Rouge sighed, taking her white milkshake. She did enjoy sneaking out but something was still bugging her.<p>

"I know I shouldn't be doing this behind Daddy's back but I can't help it." She frowned as Julie-Su, seated next to her, sipped her chocolate drink, "I feel something's still missing."

"It's about that dream with that mysterious prince, isn't it?" The pink echidna asked, "Rouge, you've been having that dream for a while and yet, you've still done nothing about it."

"That's true and with all the…" Amy gestured to a group of random male Mobians, she smiled, "Guys here, you can't miss a chance."

The bat just frowned again, "Amy, you do realize those are the type of guys who think they can do stuff for women and take advantage." She spun back in her chair again, "I might never find the right guy for me."

"Looks, as long as you girls are talking about a guy for both of you, leave me out cause I doubt I need a guy for _me._" Julie-Su laughed quietly at her own joke and then asked, taking a look at Rouge's unfinished shake and then Amy's. "Is either one of you going to finish those?" Amy hugged her strawberry shake protectively.

The Princess-in-disguise however pushed hers to her friend, sighing, "Go ahead and enjoy yourself. Besides, I already had enough with vanilla since that waffle incident this morning." She grimaced a bit.

"Suit yourself." After she had gulped down the vanilla shake, Julie-Su sighed, "As for me? I'm starting to cut loose."

"Jeez, you can never get over the fact you're not Head Captain of the Guard Army, now can you?" Rouge rolled her eyes, "Daddy wouldn't think of it."

"He'd have to at some point, wouldn't he?" Julie-Su scowled, "What do you think I've been bitching about? Training myself to get at least a small chance, something to show that show-off Head Captain what I'm made of and-"

"Julie, you'll give us away!" Amy yelped, trying to calm down her friend.

"Face it, girls." Rouge shook her head, "We all have silly dreams…"

"Yeah, silly stupid dreams…" The female echidna agreed.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, towards the back of the room, Shadow had entered looking like a regular man in causal business… if only it weren't for his pals' cane-fighting each other. "Guys…" he said, unimpressed.<p>

Sonic stopped for a minute, "Okay, okay, okay…" But then he got poked in the back by Knuckles' cane, "Cripes!"

"Yes, yes! Yes-!" But then Knuckles' hat got knocked off by the blue hedgehog, who walked by him, satisfied but the echidna, feeling ticked, whacked his back with his cane, as Sonic cried out, "Augh!" and fell over as Knuckles snickered, "Time-out!"

Shadow face-palmed, his friends were so dense these days but then he took notice of the huge bar and the crowds there, "Ah, yes. Everything's just so… gritty." He rubbed his hands together, as both his friends suddenly had a look of worry on their faces. Somehow they had a bad feeling about this whole thing.

"10 minutes, then we am-scray, right?" Sonic asked, "I mean, Jet is going to kill us if he finds out we spent most of the money on this."

"Relax, boys." Shadow gestured to himself, "Just say this was all my idea."

"That's because it is," said Knuckles, confused a little.

"Besides, it's not like anyone is going to know who we are." Shadow then fixed his sunglasses and smirked, "Come on, boys. What do you say?" He and his friends then went inside, "Let's take ourselves a walk on the wild side for once."

Then, an announcement came on over the bar speaking-line, "**6:15, everyone. Time to dance.**" Everyone started getting up, except for Rouge.

"Rouge, aren't you going to dance too?" Amy asked her friend.

"Sorry, Pinky. I'm leaving out this time." Rouge said. Julie-Su, concerned a bit, took Amy's hand and led her away from Rouge to give her alone time. Then the music started as everyone is dancing in exactly the same way, which just made them look like robots. At this time, Shadow was searching around the room for a girl who might be feeling left outand then spotted the white bat sitting by herself, looking down in depression. It seemed close enough to what he expected, she'd do fine.

"Now step back, boys." Shadow began to build a confident look, "Time to ask one of the beggar girls for that dance." As he walked on, Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other…

"Is he…?"

"Yep." Sonic nodded, looking doubtful. Shadow couldn't last with any woman.

Rouge was still in her own world unknowing of the black hedgehog's approaching behind her, "My god, everyone's just so stupid. I mean, who in their right minds would want to do something as awkward as…?"

"Hi, you want to dance?" a cool voice spoke behind her. The bat turned to disagree but as soon as she caught sight of… this attractive looking Mobian with black fur, eyes of rubies and a cool air about him, she paused before speaking, "I'm sorry, what was I saying?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow before he went off, gesturing to Rouge, "Follow me."

Rouge then got up to take a look at him, "That's odd; I don't remember seeing anyone like you in the market place."

"Well, I really don't get out so much," Shadow answered, shrugging; "Yu might say I'm from outside of the city."

"Outside of the city?" Rouge chuckled, "I hear there's a lot out there and such else." She came up next to him in dancing place, "Despite the facts of those wanting only… that thing in relation."

He gave an odd look, "Uh, right."

Rouge feebly tried to dance it off, possibly to already impress this man… until her foot got stepped on, "_Yeowch!_" She squeaked and then noticed Shadow looking at her in question. "I mean, uh… yeowch!" She shrugged, "You know, yeowch?" Then, she took his hand as they spun a bit and she slowly repeated once again, in a sort of soft voice, "Yeowch…"

Shadow pulled away a bit, "Alright, what on earth do you think you're doing?"

"Telling the truth," Rouge made a few dance steps of her own, "I'm sort of making this up."

"Really?" Shadow, feeling a beat, began to almost copy her moves in dancing.

"I mean, it's not really fair that everyone has to dance the same way, and it gets boring." Rouge began to feel the same beat as well, along with this hedgehog, "It's not really expressive and such…"

"It's… no fun."

And with that, the two began dancing in their own fashion, enjoying the music that had someone raised up a beat and began playing all jazzy. Julie-Su and Amy were also noticing the music and then spotted their friend actually dancing, with a man! Julie-Su seemed to look proud while Amy smiled happily for her friend. As Shadow and Rouge kept dancing, becoming the center of attention, even Sonic and Knuckles took notice. Their pal, boogying with an actual woman. Rouge and Shadow, despite feeling stares at them, were having the time of their lives with both of them grinning and the bat smiled, doing a backwards moon walk type of dance… until the music stopped at a record scratch after she had bumped into a hippo and fell, looking up and smiling sheepishly, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, you should watch your step, lady." The hippo said, not happy.

Shadow poked him in the chest glaring, "If _she _needs to watch her step, _you _need to watch your manners."

Rouge popped up between them, "It's okay, I got this, sir. Thank you." She began pushing Shadow in the other direction and then quietly asked him, "_Are you crazy? You couldn't take on someone like him._"

"_Have you ever learned to defend yourself?_" Shadow wanted to also know, seeing that the bat couldn't fend on her own or…

"Hey, you two." A scowling lemur came up to the pair, "The Poors aren't supposed to dance with the Riches."

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, as the bat stuttered with what she had to say but Shadow, frowning, spoke it for her, "Since when weren't we allowed to?"

"Y-yes, that's right." Rouge also frowned, "What's wrong with a Poor and a Rich to spend time together?"

"What you talking about?" The lemur frowned.

"We got some trouble makers…" a snake hissed, as a very large and angry pig came up pushing the snake and lemur aside, "Buckle up, kiddies."

"Now, now boys…" Rouge and Shadow began backing up a bit, knowing better then to mess with a mad pig, as the fist pulled back.

"This one goes to all the lazy peoples here!"

Shadow and Rouge yelped as the fist came down… only to be blocked by another hand, that belonging to Julie-Su, who smirked and frowned at the same time.

"You really need to watch that behavior of yours, piggy."

His face came right into hers, "Oh what you gonna do?" He snorted, "You're just a girly…" But then the next thing he didn't expect, Julie-Su's hand came into his face and he found himself upside down into the broken drum set and stars came out for him.

She chuckled, "Didn't I tell you-?" But then a punch came into her cheek by the lemur. Julie-Su seemed shocked at first but then grew angry, "…_**Oh no you DIDN'T!**_" She punched the lemur back, as this suddenly started up a bar fight. Amy grew worried as Sonic and Knuckles got onto one of the tables to avoid getting involved. The bar fight grew furious and Rouge soon found herself in the middle of it and watched Shadow standing there, seeming to try and find a way out of this mess. She went to help him but got knocked backward underneath the table. Julie-Su came to her side, "You alright?"

Sonic, on top of the same table with Knuckles, unknowing of the girls underneath called, "Shadow! Yo, Shads! The guards are coming!" Rouge watched as the black hedgehog seemed to respond and took on the sunglasses. She looked surprised; he looked so familiar all of a sudden!

"Let's get out of here!" Shadow called, leading the way as the blue hedgehog and red echidna jumped and followed after him. Rouge got up, "Wait a minute!"

"Rouge!" Julie-Su followed her friend who was chasing the boys who ran for the exit and caught the bat by the arm, "Rouge, what are you doing?"

"But he's… he looks like someone…" Rouge pointed and spoke softly.

"You've seen everyone in the market. What does one person make a difference?"

"But I feel like I've seen him somewhere."

The pink echidna sighed, "I'm sorry, Rouge… but it's only one time. I'm sorry." She led her friend out of the way, "Come on."

"Wait!" Amy followed them outside of the bar, as the fight raged onward. Rouge sighed, only thinking of the strange black hedgehog… little did she know he might be thinking about the white bat too…


End file.
